Square Bed?

We have an Eastern (regular) King bed. It's different from California King which is the more popular size in the islands.

What's the difference?

Eastern (Standard) King Size Mattress: 76 inches wide x 80 inches long.

Western (California) King Size Mattress: 72 inches wide x 84 inches long.

Art helped me remember which is which by saying the King is for shorter, chubbier people. The California would be for thinner, taller people.

Art and I figured the Eastern would be better (OK... never mind, it was me all along) because we'd have more space between us. I go to bed later than he does because he's up early to do that marathon training thing in the dark when the sun isn't beating up on you. I also like to read to make me drowsy. Being a little farther apart, the light won't bother him as much.

The added bonus is that we don't have to turn the mattress around. Don't even get me started on what mattress to buy. All I can say is don't get the Serta Vera Wang latex mattress because all the hype they tell you about it springing back and not sagging... not true. Latex is a layer of the mattress. The padded part on top of it sags. Sheesh! Like I said... don't get me started...


Anyway, because the Eastern King is almost square, we just turn ourselves 'round and 'round with each sheet change to prevent the sagging to get too deep in one area.

Granted when anybody comes to our bedroom, they must think we're odd to see our pillows facing in every direction.

Ah well...

The King is Here!

We had such a difficult time deciding between getting the Eastern vs. the California King. I didn't even know there were two different kinds of Kings, beds that is. The Eastern is 76"x80" and the California King is 72"x84". Art simplified it for me by saying the Eastern is for chubbier, shorter people and the California is for tall, thin people. Riiiighhhht! The Eastern King is actually the original King. The California King is called Cal King. We learned all this when we went bed hunting.

It made sense for us to get the King since Art and I are not all that tall... OK fine, I'm short. I often go to bed later and then have to read to fall asleep whereas Art goes to bed earlier so he can get up before the sun rises to go jogging. It's better for me to be a bit farther away so my reading light doesn't disturb him.

However... and there usually is a however, we figured the King would have a harder time getting up the stairs since it's 4 inches wider. On top of that, we were warned by other mattress stores that in Hawaii everybody gets the Cal King so it would be harder to find King sized bedding.

However... (I told you there would be another however.) the owner of America's Mattress said the latex mattresses bend so much that it shouldn't be a problem getting it past the turn in the stairs. He also said he would give us an even better deal if we bought the King because it's harder to sell in Hawaii and that the movers would take it back and bring a smaller mattress if it couldn't go up. Sounded like a good proposition. Besides we can always order King bedding from Overstock.com and have them mail it to our daughter. Oooooh... she'll love hearing this.

Later:
Whoopie! It's here! It was definitely a struggle to get it up the stairs past the bend. Luckily, it is a latex, bendable, smashable mattress and the delivery guys managed to sqooosh and push it up the stairs with Art and my help.

And guess what? We were able to find sheets at Ross for under $30.00. Perhaps it was because everybody else has the Cal King, we had no trouble finding a selection of (Eastern) Kings to choose from.

Whoopie! Now then... let's see how it'll feel tonight for the test run.